St Day and Carharrack Community School

School report St Day and Carharrack Community School Burnwithian, St Day, Redruth, Cornwall, TR16 5LG

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Early years provision Good 2

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 Leaders’ actions have yet to secure enough improvements in pupils’ progress to promote good achievement over time.  Subject leaders have not yet fully checked the extent to which recent changes are having an impact on improving the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress.  Teaching requires improvement because pupils’ progress as they move through the school is too variable.  Pupils’ understanding is not always checked in ways that enables pupils to make consistently strong progress in their learning.  The teaching of writing does not sufficiently enable pupils to achieve higher standards.  Pupils do not have enough opportunities to apply their mathematical skills within other subjects and this hinders their achievement in mathematics.  Teachers’ marking does not help pupils understand how to improve their work.  Despite some recent rapid improvements in pupils’ progress, standards of achievement are not high

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The school has the following strengths

 Governors’ actions are leading to improvements in the school’s performance. During a period of change, they are securing sustained advances in pupils’ outcomes.  The acting headteacher, supported by staff, is improving the quality of teaching so that pupils are beginning to make rapid gains in their progress.  The behaviour of pupils is good. The school’s work in keeping pupils safe is good. This is an inclusive school and pupils say their teachers are caring.  Children make good progress in the early years provision because teaching effectively develops their basic skills.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed learning in eight lessons, all of which were jointly seen with the acting headteacher. The inspector listened to pupils read and looked at their work.  The inspector met with pupils and talked with them about their learning. Meetings took place with governors and with both senior and subject leaders. A telephone conversation took place with a representative of the local authority.  The inspector reviewed a range of documentation including, for example, safeguarding, behaviour, and checks on pupils’ attainment and progress.  The inspector took account of the 20 responses by parents to the online questionnaire (Parent View) and 16 staff questionnaires.

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Inspection team

Howard Jones, Lead inspector Additional inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school. The number of pupils has been increasing since the previous inspection.  The early years provision consists of one full-time Reception class. For some sessions children are also grouped with pupils from Year 1.  Pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2 are taught in mixed-age classes.  Most pupils are of White British heritage.  When compared with national figures, the proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is higher than in other schools.  The proportion of pupils supported by pupil premium funding is above average. The pupil premium is additional funding to support those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

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Information about this school

 The school is part of the Redruth Learning Group Co-operative Trust.  The Chair of the Governing Body took up position in the summer term of 2014.  The acting headteacher has been in place since September 2014. Governors are seeking to appoint a permanent headteacher.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching to raise pupils’ achievement further, by:  improving pupils’ standards in literacy throughout the school by identifying and using more effective approaches for teaching writing  increasing opportunities for pupils to apply their mathematical skills within other subjects so that their attainment improves  ensuring teachers regularly check pupils’ understanding to enable pupils to make consistently strong progress  ensuring teachers’ marking helps pupils understand how to improve their work.  Improve the effectiveness of leaders so that they have a greater impact on pupils’ achievement by:  making sure subject leaders consistently check that recent initiatives are improving the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress.

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The leadership and management require improvement

 The school’s leaders have not ensured that achievement is good enough. However, the highly effective leadership provided by the acting headteacher has led to recent improvements in the quality of teaching. More focused checks on pupils’ performance ensure that appropriate measures are being put into place to increase their rate of progress and close gaps in attainment. These improvements have not yet been substantiated to improve pupils’ performance in national tests.  Leaders and governors are taking diligent action to ensure that additional funding is being used to support disadvantaged pupils to make better progress. All staff are closely involved in this process, ensuring that gaps in these pupils’ attainment are closing.  Subject leaders routinely review learning in their respective areas, but have yet to check sufficiently the extent to which recent initiatives are improving the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress.

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The leadership and management require improvement

 Leaders are now evaluating the quality of teaching more effectively, and weak teaching is being addressed. These checks are referenced against pupils’ progress, along with teachers’ targets, and are linked to teachers’ career and pay progression. Staff value the bespoke training they receive and note how this is improving their classroom practice.  This is an inclusive school in which pupils’ well-being is promoted regardless of any specific need they may have. Positive relationships within the school ensure that discrimination is not tolerated. Support provided for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is well organised, ensuring that they have every opportunity to do equally as well as their peers.  Governors have established a highly effective partnership with the local authority. This ensures that they receive the support to sustain increasingly improved outcomes for pupils. This firmly demonstrates the

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The leadership and management require improvement

school’s capacity to improve further. School leaders also work closely with colleagues within the learning trust, sharing their expertise and using it to promote further the school’s performance.  The additional primary sport funding is used to support a range of schemes which serves to promote pupils’ physical education. Staff benefit from coaching which enhances their expertise in teaching sports skills, and pupils participate in a range of activities such as tag rugby, gymnastics and football.  Leaders are now giving clear direction in how pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills may be enhanced to achieve higher standards, focusing particularly on providing more writing opportunities and deepening pupils’ mathematical understanding. Pupils also have opportunities to explore topic themes and participate in a range of investigations in science. Together with other activities, such as participating in the popular

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The leadership and management require improvement

school choir, pupils are being helped to broaden their perspectives.  The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural experiences effectively. Pupils participate in exciting events within the local community to develop understanding of their cultural heritage. They are also helped to appreciate British values, for example through initiatives such as celebrating ‘all that is British’ over the past fifty years. Older pupils regularly discuss current events as portrayed in the media, which serves to extend their understanding of society and democracy. Pupils also reflect on themes such as ‘working as a team’ during assemblies. Pupils are prepared well for life in modern Britain.  Safeguarding arrangements meet requirements. These include vetting of adults and carrying out thorough risk assessments for the school site and educational visits.  The governance of the school:  Governors have broadened their expertise, and are competent in holding school leaders to account.

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The leadership and management require improvement

They now take appropriate steps to ensure that additional funding is being used properly to improve the achievement of disadvantaged pupils. They have taken firm action to secure strong leadership and prepare the way to appoint a permanent headteacher . Consequently, they have been instrumental in bringing about marked improvements in the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress. By using their training on how to read performance information accurately, they are able to compare the school’s performance with others nationally, securing further improvements in the school’s provision. Governors are involved in developments to change the way pupils’ progress is checked, and have established clear routines to monitor the performance of the acting headteacher. They are working to improve the quality of teaching by ensuring that teachers’ pay, and any promotions, are reflected in how well their pupils achieve. Governors manage the school’s budget well, ensuring that resources are used to enhance

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The leadership and management require improvement

pupils’ learning. They ensure the primary sport funding is being used to improve pupils’ participation in sport and to further teachers’ ability to deliver good quality physical education.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. It is not outstanding because teachers’ higher expectations have yet to have a full impact on pupils’ focus on their work. Pupils are eager to learn, are polite and courteous, and tend to be absorbed in their learning. They listen carefully because they want to do well. They work effectively together but, as yet, the full force of improvements in provision has not made a full enough impact on pupils’ progress. Older pupils are articulate and talk confidently about their learning.  Pupils behave appropriately during assemblies, and are happy to reflect on moral and social themes. They play well together during their breaks, at lunchtime, and when moving around the dining hall. Older pupils take responsibility to act as ‘play buddies’ for other children. Pupils are active within their local community, such as through participating in village festivals, and the school choir performs at public events.

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Behaviour

 The school’s behaviour records show that behaviour is typically good over time, and that recorded incidents are followed up thoroughly.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good.  This is an inclusive school. It successfully provides support and care for pupils with a wide range of needs. During the inspection, some parents expressed concerns regarding bullying. These were examined, and it emerged that there has been a small number of exclusions this. Where these arose, they related to a very small number of pupils with specific issues. These were all dealt with properly by the school. If incidents do occur, they are managed effectively through well-developed procedures. Pupils said that there is very little bullying of any type and that incidents of unkind behaviour are rare.  Pupils say they feel safe in school. They say that adults are very supportive and always listen to them should they have any concerns. Pupils know how to keep themselves secure using the internet, and they say cyber bullying is not an issue. Pupils are very accepting of one another and are emphatic that racist

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Safety

incidents and discrimination, or any form of name calling, do not feature in their school.  Pupils enjoy coming to school and attendance is high. Pupils say teachers make their learning interesting, especially through their topic work.  The large majority of parents positively affirm that their children are happy, and that they are safe and well looked after by the school. Staff agree with this view.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching has not ensured that pupils make consistently good progress as they move through the school. Consequently, the achievement of pupils in writing and mathematics has not been good enough. However, because teachers stimulate pupils to enjoy reading, many of them become accomplished readers by the time they leave the school.  The teaching of writing does not effectively enable pupils to make good progress. As a result, pupils’ achievement towards reaching higher standards is hindered.  Pupils’ learning in mathematics is weaker because pupils do not have enough opportunities to use their mathematical skills in other subjects.  Pupils’ understanding is not always checked so that they can make good progress. Teachers routinely review pupils’ previous learning, but do not always evaluate whether tasks need to be changed to enable pupils to make more progress.  Teachers’ feedback when marking pupils’ work does not consistently help them understand how to

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

improve to enable them to attain even higher standards.  Because of the work of the acting headteacher, and staff who share her vision, there is a more tenacious focus on closing gaps and pupils are now making more rapid progress across the school. This is leading to improvements in the attainment of all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged.  Where other adults provide additional support in improving pupils’ learning, when working with smaller groups or within the classroom, their considerable skills are put to good use. They are adept at enabling disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs to make the most of their support and learn well by thoroughly engaging in their tasks.  Pupils’ progress is stronger where teachers use a range of different approaches to tasks. For example, in a Year 1 literacy session, pupils were enabled to create a set of descriptive words and, as a result, they

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

crafted well-written letters based around their topic theme.  Teachers skilfully use questioning to extend the learning of pupils, as seen in a Years 5 and 6 session based on earthquakes. Pupils of different groups remained absorbed in their learning to become increasingly confident in using subject vocabulary and analytical skills.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The progress made by pupils as they move through the school is inconsistent. As a result, their attainment in writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6, as demonstrated by their performance in national tests, is below what is expected.  The gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils nationally has not been closing over time. Compared to other pupils at the school, they were behind by eight months in reading, 22 months in writing and 19 months in mathematics at the end of Key Stage 2 in 2014. Compared with other pupils nationally, they were 10 months behind in reading, 23 months behind in writing and 21 months behind in mathematics. Targeted actions taken by school leaders are now leading to gaps closing for these pupils.  Pupils’ performance in the 2014 Year 1 phonics (linking letter and sounds) check was below the national average. However, this is improving and current pupils are set to do better. Pupils enjoy reading so that

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

by the end of Year 6 a good proportion of pupils achieve well.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are making progress similar to that of other pupils. Some make even stronger progress from their starting points, especially in their reading. Appropriate support ensures their well-being is enhanced and they effectively engage with their learning.  The achievement of the most able pupils has been improving. From their individual starting points these pupils achieve well in reading and mathematics by the end of Year 6. School evidence shows current pupils are on track to achieve well.  Gaps in pupils’ previous knowledge and understanding are now closing quickly. Because of effective actions taken by leaders and governors, the progress made by pupils across the school is now stronger.

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The early years provision is good

 Leadership of the early years provision is good. Effective planning ensures children make consistently good progress through a wide range of learning opportunities which serve to develop effectively their basic literacy and numeracy skills.  From their different starting points, children make good progress. Most children enter Reception with skill levels below those typical for their age. Some enter with skills well below this in communication, language and numeracy. By the time they enter Year 1, most reach at least the level of development that would be expected for their age, and some do even better. Children are now better prepared for Year 1.  Children’s learning is recorded well and parents value seeing how their children are developing. There are effective checks on children’s understanding and adults use these to tailor tasks to ensure they continue to learn effectively.  Children’s behaviour and safety are good. Children play very well together and are confident in talking

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The early years provision is good

about their work and in expressing their ideas. Children are eager to learn, and are keen to remain at activities until they are successful. Adults are always attentive toward children’s personal well-being and welfare, whatever their individual needs, creating a positive environment in which children thrive.  Children’s imagination is very effectively developed through a variety of resources. For example, their learning around the theme of ‘air and sea rescue’ inspires a wealth of creative work by children and enables them to extend their language and communication skills. Their use of phonics is equally successful. Children’s finer handling skills are evident in the range of art and craft tasks they confidently engage in.  Teachers and adults successfully use questioning to enhance children’s understanding. They are particularly adept at providing opportunities which inspire children to learn through role play and number

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is failing

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Grade Judgement Description

to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 111840 Local authority Cornwall Inspection number 449572

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 165 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Keith Goldsworthy Acting Headteacher Gill Halsey Date of previous school inspection 2–3 December 2009 Telephone number 01209 820456 Fax number 01209 822202 Email address secretary@st-day.cornwall.sch.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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School details

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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School details

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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School details

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please

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School details

telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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School details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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